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Purdue, race-car constructor Dallara and Indianapolis Motor Speedway have begun a project using motorsports to make science education more accessible to children. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Dallara and Purdue to use motorsports technology to teach kids

May 22, 2013

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Purdue, race-car constructor Dallara and Indianapolis Motor Speedway have begun a project using motorsports to make science education cool enough for school.

On the evening of May 22, Indiana-based Purdue University -- at the Dallara headquarters just outside of Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- kicked off a program designed to demonstrate that science can be not only fun but also important to a career later in life.

The basic idea is to take an existing project, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), and combine it with motorsports. The result is called M-STEM.

Experts say we'll need 10,000 engineering graduates to keep up with developments in business and technology in the future. The issue is, where do you start with young minds?

James Caruthers, the infectiously enthusiastic Reilly Professor of Chemical Engineering, explains how the nascent program will work.

“We're trying to use both the cool of motorsports and the competitive aspects of motorsports to attract young students,” Caruthers told Autoweek.

“So our objective is not just to go after the students who are engineering- and science-bound in universities. We think it has a much broader applicability to students who need to be a master machinist.”

Referring to the deficit in qualified engineers, Caruthers continued, “This nation needs those skills in a serious way. When you start looking at a seventh grader, they have no clue on where they're going to.

“This STEM [program] introduces them to cool tech and tells them why they should be interested whether they are on a university track or an associate program.

"M-STEM will be a curriculia that will be part of the 'physical science' part of the regular middle school. Thus, it is not an after school program, but part of the everyday science or math classes that the students take in middle school. The advantage of this approach is that the M-STEM program will provide motivation for the fundamental science and math concepts that the students are required to learn in school; moreover, it makes learning in the classroom fun.The M-STEM program will initially run at the existing schools in Speedway and Decatur school systems."

Of course, it's important for the M-STEM program to meet existing governmental requirements for school curricula.

As a work in progress, the announcement of the partnership involves only those two local school districts but as Caruthers said, the people behind it want to go beyond Dallara and IMS, and move across the state and the nation.

Dallara's commitment is there. Caruthers said, “Dallara is ready to put in 10 museum-quality, hands-on science projects [for these kids]. Youngsters will fall in love with IndyCar racing, science and technology. Put STEM and motorsports together in Indiana and it's a no brainer.”

An official announcement of Indianapolis Motor Speedway's involvement with the program will be made on Friday.